Katy

First formally settled in the mid-1890s, Katy was a railroad town along the Missouri–Kansas–Texas (MKT) Railroad which ran parallel to U.S. Route 90 (today Interstate 10) into downtown Houston. Katy obtained its name when the MKT Railroad dropped its Missouri waypoint and the junction became known as the "KT stop". The fertile floodplain of Buffalo Bayou, which has its source near Katy, and its tributaries made the city and other communities in the surrounding prairie an attractive location for rice farming. Beginning in the 1960s, the rapid growth of Houston moved westward along the new Interstate 10 corridor, bringing Katy into its environs.

Today, Katy lies at the center of a broader area known as Greater Katy, which has become heavily urbanized. Homes and businesses may have Katy postal addresses without being in the city limits. While largely subsumed into Greater Houston, the town of Katy is still notable for Katy Mills Mall, Katy High School and its football dominance, and the historic Katy town square along the former right-of-way of the MKT railroad.